An Update! And a Confession.

Oh hey there. So, first things first, I’m SUPER sorry about totally falling off the face of the earth and not posting during first year. Things happened, man, and they happened fast, and there were just so many of them.

So now that that’s out of the way, here’s a super-quick update about how the first year of business school went: I stretched and challenged myself, met a ton of amazing and surprising people, learned so many new things, visited places I never thought I’d go, and ate a lot of delicious meals in Chicago. If I can get my act together (let’s hope), I’ll post soon about some of those experiences.

…I also kind of changed course, career-wise. I applied to business school thinking that I would go into entertainment marketing, but instead I recruited for (and last week signed a full-time offer in) management consulting. Whaaaaaaaat?

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So here’s the full story. Last summer I had a real talk moment with myself about what I wanted to do after school. The decision came from a swirl of thoughts: wanting to continue my education after b school, feeling like I should take the opportunity to get a great brand name on my resume, wanting to make different choices than I’d made before, and wanting a job that would broaden my opportunities coming out of it.

And to me, consulting seemed like the best shot at getting all the things I wanted.

I decided I would recruit for the four heaviest-hitting consulting firms: McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and Deloitte. My main Plan B was to apply to entertainment internships, and I put together a list of 100+ media internships, ready to pounce if I needed to. I also threw my hat in for a few other positions on campus, like marketing consultancies and Mattel. I was lucky enough to land a couple of consulting internship offers within the first few weeks of recruitment, so I set Plan B aside.

Do I think consulting is what all non-traditional people should go into? Nope, totally not. I know entertainment folks who went into tech internships or into analytics roles at companies like Nike, which are also awesome ways to round out their experience. I also know of other entertainment folks who want to pursue consulting. All are good choices as long as you know what you’re shooting for.

But I wanted you to know the update and why I changed my mind. I’ll be posting some resources for consulting recruitment and (hopefully, again, if I can get my act together) information about recruiting for a super traditional industry from a non-traditional / entertainment background.

Thanks for reading! Hope to see you around these parts again soon. And thanks to the readers who’ve reached out to me to chat — it’s been awesome meeting you guys, so keep the hellos coming!

xo, Jackie

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Image courtesy of Screen Gems.